Once-sleepy City Now Wide Awake

OUR COUNTY

Sanford's awakening: Chris Cranias says downtown Sanford is really hopping on Saturdays and Sundays these days. Business is especially booming at his Jakes' Cafe on First Street.

That's been a longtime goal of downtown merchants. Something must be working.

Such things don't come easily. People must be dedicated and willing to put in extra work to make them happen. Sure, their businesses benefit, but so does the entire community.

You have to hand it to that stubborn downtown group. They keep slugging, long after a lot of folks would have given up - Chris, Helen Stairs, Kay Bartholomew and the others.

Take that Ritz Theater project. How long have they been raising money and pouring sweat trying to restore that battered, historic building so they can bring a bit of culture to downtown?

There's another patio dinner theater Friday and Saturday. Chris throws open his restaurant and the covered space next door for dinner and a show, with proceeds going to the Ritz.

At 15 bucks a head, the theater restoration folks don't pocket much profit once expenses are taken out. Yet, they keep on going.

This week's show, by the way, consists of 12 vignettes from plays performed by The Actor's Group. Dinner is at 7:01 p.m. The show starts promptly at 8:01 p.m. Call (407) 323-7322 for reservations.

And while you're at it, you might as well plan to commit the weekend in downtown Sanford. Saturday and Sunday - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. - is the annual St. Johns River Festival.

That means a huge crafts show with exhibitions of all sorts of artwork. Lots of entertainment and food, also. Another in the growing string of activities downtown.

Speaking of downtown, I dropped in on Barbara Fowler last week. First time I had seen the old fire station since she restored and made it into her home. It's a doozy. Simple, yet elegant.

The first floor remains untouched. The second, though, consists of a huge room that serves as kitchen, living and dining room. There are also two bedrooms, an office and two baths.

Barbara, you will recall, is a professional artist who moved up from Miami after she just happened in on Sanford. Immediately, she recognized the potential, fell in love with the town and its people. Now you couldn't distinguish her from a native.

She's been involved in restoring the old bus station and an old home. Through her artist's eye, she sees excitement and beauty lying beneath decades of neglect and decay. The community gained a lot when she came.

It is people like Barbara who will be the real awakening factor in bringing Sanford out of its Rip van Winkle sleep and direct it back toward the jewel it once was.

And people like Kay Bartholomew, who babied First Street Gallery to life, then was unbowed when circumstances beyond her control closed it. Now she has put her own money on the line in an attempt to revive it elsewhere downtown.

And Helen Stairs, who pumps life into a host of programs aimed at revitalizing downtown. She won't give up.

There are others, many of them, who came from elsewhere and said, ''This is my town,'' then set to work.

Few cities anywhere have such untapped potential to become a really grand community. The lakefront - well, what can you say? The old buildings downtown. The huge inventory of old homes crying to be restored. What potential.